Born on 30 August 1952 in Oulu, on the Botnian Gulf,
(Suomi-Finland), first of two children:
his younger sister Silja was to become
one of the most distinguished painters of the Tampere
lagoons.
His father Gunnar, a famous Finnish poet, published the
well known collections "Sekasointuja"
and "Uusia Säkenijä" and fought with the
reds as "Sissiluutnantti Ravia"
(partisan lieutenant Ravia) against the nazi of Von Falkenhorst. Fjalar's mother
Anu, a very capable teacher,
was one of the first Scandinavian women having crossed
the Atlantic on a hydroplane in the forties.

He studied applied software entomology at the Savonlinna
University and graduated with the paper "How to reverse
engineer, and eventually smash, software bugs", published
in the prestigious "students' essays" of the
University of
Helsinki. He later studied history
of the early middle ages and rhetoric, in Berlin, under the teachings
of one of the greatest university mentors Europe has had
in the last century: Dr Frithjof Sielaff.

His hobbies and extra-professional activities
vary: web-publishing (on http://searchlore.org);
software reverse
engineering and protections matters; anti-advertisement activities; reality cracking
and finally beer-tasting (Belgian beers¹ of course).
He enjoys
games. Board games with strategical content (chess and all
Alex Randolph's
games²), but also software games, for instance
the unforgettable Steel
panther series³ (not to speak of the even better 'combat mission' series, with their
incredible tactical*depth).

He hears classical music (Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Mahler and Katschaturian); yet his
favorite
activities (bar sailing around Greece
with his small old and sturdy teak-vertue :-) are by
far "semantical reversing" and "practical rhetoric".
He spends part of his holidays -almost every year- in
Venice (Italy), a city
that he loves (there are no cars) and hates (there are too many
Italians with a GSM screwed to their heads and much too many tourists).

One of his most peculiar endowments is the capacity of
NON watching for months any TV at all.

He works and lives in the European Union with his
beloved wife
Annele, his
daughter Franziska, the twins
Alvi and Sirkka, his books, his beers
and a
lot of bikes.

"For the older reversers are less interested in themselves than the younger ones, and better at getting
inside other things. They are steadier, and keep their minds on things
longer"
+Alistair

²) Ricochet Robot
was developed by fravia+ in 1980 (on a different topological board) and the idea was passed
(as a present)
to Alex in 1991.

³) You'll be able to find an incredible quantity of very good games, of course for free, if you follow
the paths of the "Abandonedwares". For instance the
complete Steel Panthers 2 version.
Many have worked hard in order to port these strategical marvels to the latest windoze
systems. Here
and here
you'll be able to find, for free, the latest versions, and while playing and wasting
many months - you have been warned -
on these strategical and tactical marvels,
you may be tempted to apply some sound theory! :-)

*)
CMBO, CMBB and CMAK are now out, all three have demos that you can play in order to try them out,
and I am sure you'll enjoy the tactical depth and the many
scenarios.
Anyway CMBO, the older one of the trilogy can
be VERY easily found on the web.